Trade zones in place before year-end

The Economic Recovery and Revitalization Task Force is targeting to establish free trade zones in the Northern Marianas before the end of 1999, a new route being explored by the government to diversify the tourism-dependent island economy.

The ambitious plan eyes to set up free trade zones on Saipan, Rota and Tinian by the last quarter of the year and will be marketed as new investment destination in the region beginning March.

“The Free Trade Zones Committee has plans to have our product complete ready for marketing (by) March 15, said committee chairman Bob Jones, in a report to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio.

The project, patterned after the Philippines and Hawaii, will be unveiled in the Economic Conference to be held on Saipan in March, he said.

The administration is rushing the drafting of a legislation that will set into motion the creation of the first free trade zones in the commonwealth that will attempt to pull CNMI from the worst economic distress to hit islands in years.

The proposed measure will contain incentives to be extended to potential investors, the type of business that can be accommodated, as well as the site for the future free trade zone.

The year-long financial turmoil in Asia continues to ravage the fragile economy of CNMI largely dependent on tourism, which over the years has been a consistent provider of revenues for the government.

With the substantial decline in tourism, the financially-troubled government is taking the avenue of establishing free trade zoned to reboot the teetering economy and address the impending departure of the half-a-billion-dollar garment industry when trade barriers are brought down with the implementation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade by the World Trade Organization beginning year 2003.

The committee previously discussed with the board members of the Commonwealth Ports Authority the possibility of using the port’s properties near the airport. Similar talks were done with the Board of Public Land to identify government lands in the Lower Base area.

CPA Executive Director Carlos H. Salas previously issued a memorandum advising the ports authority’s board of directors that the task force was seriously considering 20 hectares of land owned by the agency for the initial phase of the program.

In that memorandum, Salas said the subcommittee has identified 61 hectares of CPA lands for the industrial development out of the total 128 hectares of land near the airport that is available for lease.

The ports authority is hoping that with the completion of the $42 million Saipan Harbor Improvement Project in 1999, the free trade zone could make use of the expanded facility.